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I love a podcast!Podcasts get me through situations where time might drag, or perhaps I've got some time to myself - I'm think a bike work-out at the Gym; a long car journey; or food for my mind and soul whilst I'm cooking.

I've just got back from holiday, and having missed a couple of Sundays, I have caught up with Kerith podcasts, listening to three outstanding preaches from Ben Pocock and Ben Oliver in Bracknell; and Heather Pocock in Sandhurst - I found myself wanting to join in with a few loud "amens" this morning at the gym!

What about you? Let me know when and where do you listen to podcasts?

Our guest contributor today is the wonderful Paula Ridgway - with her large heart , great enthusiasm and infectious faith, she is such a huge blessing to many at Kerith. Over to Paula for her encouragement to simply gather a few friends, to listen to a podcast together and then talk about it and see what God is saying.

You'll remember that in May I went to Macedonia? I took a team of wonderful Kerith women, and together we supported Marija Vuletic as she led the Vredna Conference in Skopje (the capital city) Macedonia. It was such a rich time (challenging too at times!) we gave, but we also received so much. It was a real privilege to stand alongside these wonderful women - our sisters in Christ.

Here are Clare's reflections of our time together.Spending time with the women in Macedonia spoke to me so
much about our world-wide family in faith. God really is bringing people from
every people group into relationship with Him! We were joined by women from
Serbia and the Roma community.I think joy in hardship sums up what many of the women
are experiencing right now. Some have only been believers for a very short
time, but their joy in belonging to Jesus and being on a journey with Him was
so clear.I spent time talking to some of the youngest women at the
conference. A few of them feel the strugg…

In May this year I went to Tirana, Albania to support Miranda in leading UNIKE - her women's conference. This was her fourth year and it was so good - God was with us, and we felt led and blessed by Him as we ministered to the ladies. I was accompanied by a couple of wonderful, faithful Kerith women, Glynne and Iris. You may remember an earlier blog when Glynne shared her highlights? Well now it's Iris' turn (read right to the end for the most wonderful phrase!) So Iris, how was Albania?

I have loved being part of the teams going to Albania for
the past 4 years. It has been a great privilege to do this.The love that the ladies and girls show you makes you feel
really at home. You are always greeted with hugs and 3 kisses!! ( I love
it)Over the years I am aware that the Holy Spirit is moving and
that the ladies are expecting to be moved and it moves up a gear each year.One of the biggest things for me is the Worship!!The worship music starts and I think..”OK I know this song…

It was so great at REAL to be joined by 4 lovely ladies from City Church Klaipeda, Lithuania. This picture below shows our very own Daiva Johnson (who is Lithuanian, and soon to be launching Kerith Windsor with her husband Leon) , Ocean (who we borrowed from Lithuania for the Academy year, but she is soon returning) Lina, Donalda, Ramonda, Svetlana and our lovely Marija McKean (also Lithuanian, soon to be leaving Kerith to be part of Flow Church with her husband Jamie)

Simon was recently in Lithuania to speak at City Church (remember he also ran a 10K the same day?!?!) and whilst there he connected with Lina and Ramonda who are both part of the worship team . They've been here for REAL and to also connect with our Kerith worship teams.

Svetlana and I are good friends - we don't let a little thing like a lack of a shared language come between us!!! We've been so blessed by the lovely Donalda translating our conversations and the conference content during this time in the UK…

I really loved preaching alongside a team of lovely Pastors at REAL this year. All are local church Pastors. All love preaching and teaching God's word. All love people and want to use their gifts to help people love one another and love God.

Kemi was brilliant wasn't she? She is our friend from Jubilee Church Enfield. She's holding her own women's conference called Courage on 13/14 July, you can find out more details and book in here. I went along last year and had a wonderful time - if you're free, then do go and be part of it. I know God will meet you!

The other four preachers are Kerith Pastors,and I couldn't have been more proud of everyone - grateful for the prayer and hard work they'd put into their Talks; and so supported by them all - thank you Heather,Fran and Emily - you blessed us all so much!

I'm planning on listening again to all the Talks, alongside looking through my notebook to see what God is saying to me. I think you'll also love li…

We'll
be gathering across June
28th & 29th for 2 days packed
with passionate worship, inspiring preaches, community with
eachother and of course - some great snacks! Put the dates in your diary
and plan to join us for another year...

If you've already got your ticket, why not bless a woman in your life
with one - you have no idea what impact an invite could have.
Alternatively, purchase a sponsored
ticket which we will re-allocate to women who
wouldn't otherwise be able to attend.

Romans 15:13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Trusting God means that we choose to believe that God is in control and that He can see the whole picture. We trust what God says about us, not how we feel. Trusting God means that we choose to believe that God is in
control and that He can see the whole picture. We trust what God says about us,
not how we feel (Take a
look at this Freedom in Christ ministries postcard-
why not buy yourself a copy?)

It doesn’t always change our circumstances or remove our pain. But it takes our focus away from our situation and puts it onto Jesus. When we trust in God, the Holy Spirit fills us with hope, joy and peace. Joy is not like happiness that is dependent on our circumstances. We can know moments of joy in the midst of deep despair and disappointment. Peace comes when we take our worries and anxiety to the God of hope, in prayer and thanksgiving (P…

1 Peter 3:15But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect To ‘revere Christ as Lord’ is, as the amplified version of the Bible says, to ‘give Him first place in your lives’. To give Jesus the top priority space in your life. We can ‘be prepared’ by studying the Bible and praying. This enables us to know more of God, increasing both our knowledge of His word and our experience of His presence, which in turn increases our confidence to answer questions. We can think about our answers in advance, so that we don’t feel like we have been put on the spot - and having an answer prepared helps us to give a gentle and thought-out response. When we are asked questions, we can ask the Holy Spirit to bring answers to our mind and to give us the words to say, that will speak right into the questioner’s life, in a way that we could not do with our own natural …

Romans 5:3-4 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Challenging times can cause us to run to Jesus. We can wrestle with God in our prayers, claiming His promises for our lives. When we spend time in His presence it changes us. It changes the way we think, the way we see things, speak and behave. Our minds are transformed and our character is developed. We hear truth from God and we learn to spot thoughts that are lies and choose not to believe them. We can take life one day at a time, relying on God to give us what we need for today; and we can have hope about what He will do in the future, instead of fearing what is to come and allowing our minds to spiral out of control, imagining the worst case scenarios. We can ‘glory (or rejoice) in our suffering’, not because we enjoy it, but because we can see God at work changing us (‘being confident of this, that he who began a good wor…

Romans 15:4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. Reading the Bible gives us encouragement, increases our faith and helps us to persevere and keep hoping, when we face impossible or never-ending situations. In the Bible we can see many examples of hope realised. Today, spend some time reading about some of these people. You could start with Moses, Ruth, Gideon or Hannah. In these stories we read about people who persevered and were obedient, but they were also really honest with God, shared their disappointments, anger, frustrations and hurt with God. We can learn from them. God can handle our emotions, our anger and confusion. As we honestly cry out to Him, He hears us and He gives us the strength to continue.

Thank you for coming, for being hungry, expectant, responsive. Thank you to our team of preachers - I loved serving alongside my supportive sisters - "Strength in depth" (apparently an Irish rugby term!) I loved how personal vulnerability and God's Word went hand in hand. Thank you to our Kerith women who shared their stories with such grace. Thank you to all who took part in our Seminars - humbly sharing what God's been teaching you, and encouraging others to live with hope, for whatever stage of life they are in. Thank you to all who helped us actually put REAL on - to those who served throughout the conference days with such commitment, joy and energy (in the heat!) ; the prayer teams; the "bringers of fun"; the Hospitality teams. Thank you to all who served and planned for many days and weeks - to our wonderful Worship and Production teams, who blessed us so much; to all the creative teams, all those involved i…

Psalm 119:114 You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word. Biblical hope is defined as a
confident expectation. It’s not wishful thinking, for example “I hope you feel
better”, it is waiting in expectation of seeing God fulfil his promises. It’s not about WHAT we are hoping for;
it’s about WHO our hope is in. Our hope should not be in our abilities, in
other people or in our job or money (inversely we should not lack hope because
we feel that we lack skills, relationships or finance). God is our safe place and our protection.
The Bible says He is ‘an
ever-present help in trouble’ (Psalm 46:1).We can choose to put our hope in God and His word (the
Bible), which is full of His promises for us. Then we can wait with a confident
expectation to see God’s promises fulfilled. Today, why don’t you look up some of God’s promises? You could
write them on a post-it note and stick it to your bathroom mirror or at the top
of your computer screen to remind you of the promises He …

About Me

Hi I'm Catrina Benham, I'm married to Simon and we have three incredible young adults, Zach, Jacob and Alice. Our labrador Sam is also part of the family!
I love our Church, Kerith Community Church. I'm responsible for our two morning meetings in Bracknell -
come and visit anytime! We meet on Sundays at 9:30 10:30 (Sandhurst) 11:30 and 6pm
www.kerith.church
I lead the charge for REAL, our annual women's conference; and through that, God has opened doors for me to travel to eastern Europe, supporting other female leaders as they gather women. It's not something I ever thought I'd do, but it's an exciting adventure I'm grateful to God for.